Never sold on ebay before - tell me about fees please

[CantSleepWontSleep]

What do I have to pay to who - listing fee, paypal fee, anything else?
Is listing fee a fixed amount or a % of sale price?
Do I have to pay anything if an item doesn't sell?
Anything else I should know?

[CantSleepWontSleep]

Oh, and can I load up all the info in advance and then start the auction later?

[EldonAve]

Listing is fixed
Then you pay a % of the sale fee
Paypal also take a commission if people pay that way

For no sale you pay the listing fee only

Fees vary according to the type of item you list and it's starting price
More fees if you but a BIN price on

[CantSleepWontSleep]

What % of the sale price do you pay then, or does it depend on how much it sold for?

What would it be for something selling for say £5-£10?

How much commission do paypal take?

Is it worth actually selling stuff by the time you've paid all the fees?!

[EldonAve]

pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/fees.html
it is staggered

can't recall about the paypal fees
generally I think you get to keep about 70% of the final value (excl p&p)

[EachPeachPearMum]

CSWS- there is a fee/charge to load auctions and start them later- but you could use something like turbolister to get all your info in and then load when you're ready to go.

Check what price things have gone for that you want to sell- eg selling prices of similar spec/condition items. (using the advanced search on there). That should give you an idea of what is worth listing.
Try to build a little into your postage & packaging costs to 'pay' for your fees- not strictly allowed, but as long as you are not stiffing people on postage (which I never do) then it won't cause any problems.

The royal mail site has a form where you can check postage costs for weight/size of package so you can accurately quote P&P- ie not charging people £3 P&P to mail out a babygro but rather the 85p it costs plus 30p towards your fees, so more like £1.15...

If stuff is very heavy, but only goes for a low price, it may not be worth auctioning- however... you can specify collection only on auctions. (and make sure if you do that you have cash on collection only so that you know you have the money for it.... people could collect and then say they haven't received the item, and you would have no proof for paypal, and they would find in buyer's favour for example.)

I think Frizbe sells on there too, so she probably has lots of tips.

You'll get a better price for branded goods- ie 3 JL sleepsuits as opposed to 3 tesco ones, but that goes without saying.

What are you selling [nosy emoticon] ? some things are not worth listing.

Cheapest listing fee is for starting at 99p.... but you have to be prepared for an item having only 1 bid- start price really should be the absolute lowest you would accept for an item... as lots of new sellers find to their cost

I have made reasonable sales in the past... but there are better times of year to sell certain items IYSWIM- eg selling summer clothes in winter is stupid, as bids will be very low... however selling them in August is too late, etc.

HTH

[EachPeachPearMum]

Meant to say decent photos (and plenty of them) make all the difference to how bids go on an item- especially if it is an item that many people list- if they can see what excellent condition your item is in, buyers will be more confident.

Don't use ebay additional photos- fees are v costly- use an auction template- freely available (or knock one up if you know HTML) and a photo hosting site(- eg photobucket) and add as many extra photos as you like for free. Really makes a difference to your auction.

[CantSleepWontSleep]

Thanks ladies. I'm sure I'll have more questions as I start to get stuff together over the next few weeks.

EPPM - I have a load of dd's Boden clothes, which sell well on there, and prob some other cheaper makes which can go as bundles.

Also have a sofa, which will obv go as collection only!

And who knows what else I'll find to sell once I get going - have had to clear out half my loft after all!

[bubblerock]

You can use Ebay fee calculators too

[EachPeachPearMum]

Yes- mini boden sells very well- even playwear bundles!

[CantSleepWontSleep]

Grrr - looks like you can't use turbo lister with a mac .

[EachPeachPearMum]

Oh- that is crappy- I;ve just changed to macbook

[CantSleepWontSleep]

Have you got parallels? Dh has pointed out that I could prob do it that way.

[EachPeachPearMum]

What are parallels??????

[CantSleepWontSleep]

It's a piece of software that lets you run a virtual windows machine on a mac, in parallel with the mac os. I only use it normally to do my tesco order, as their site just won't work on my mac.

[EachPeachPearMum]

A bit like an emulator?
Do you have the name of it at all?
(though maybe DH already has this in here, I wouldn't know I have only used safari and gimp so far!)

[CantSleepWontSleep]

It's called Parallels!

[EachPeachPearMum]

Ah [dim emoticon]

[EachPeachPearMum]

And I just asked DH if he knew what 'Parallels is'? and he said 'yeah, its software that blah blah blah ' for 10 minutes

How come he knows crap like that but can't manage to find a takeaway menu that he put away?

[CantSleepWontSleep]

Right, I've read loads of the linked stuff, but I haven't seen anywhere explaining the fees for if you do 'buy it now or best offer' - only one or the other. How does that work then?

Am also bewildered by the photo stuff. Have sussed what the 'gallery' is (and finally understood why not everything has a picture when I search), but on your auction can you post as many pics as you like, and do you pay one fee regardless, or a price per picture?

[EachPeachPearMum]

You can only post more pictures in an auction for free if you make an html page- if you use ebay's option to add more pictures you will be charged per picture (12p per pic is it?) This is dire if you sell something for only 2.50, but posted 7 pictures of it (like me! )

I thought 'gallery' listing was free now? or maybe that was just for a limited period....

I haven't used 'BIN' so bumping for someone who uses that!

[Frizbe]

We mainly use shop now, tho I am going to privately list some baby clothes eventually honest!

I think gallery is automatically included (free) since they changed things the other month.

When you do your postage costs don't forget to factor in printing/labelling costs as well/packaging costs, though I'm sure you have this covered.

When listing/before listing, check out how people have titled the listings that you want to compete with, this will ensure maximum coverage when people search. Ensure that you cram as much info into the title as you can and be very descriptive when covering your item, as some buyers will pick you up on the slightest thing.

[EachPeachPearMum]

Um yes- titles very important- including size, gender, brand, and condition. (eg BNWT- brand new with tags, ExCon, BNWOT- brand new without tags)

I hate it when people list "girls clothes" and thats it!